Bleacher Creature Feature
#45: "Ding Dong the Hitch is Dead"
22 August 2003
It's about goddamn time.
For most of the last two seasons, I have been pondering why, precisely, the Yankees were continuing to carry the albatross that is Sterling Hitchcock on their shoulders. Tonight, they finally addressed this prolonged idiocy by trading him to the Cardinals for a stuffed animal and a bag of jelly beans. This after the welcome release of Todd "I played for Joe Torre once, years ago, so I get at-bats whether I deserve them or not" Zeile has me singing a happy tune.
Now if we can just get rid of Jeff Weaver....
(The really sad thing is that the Cards actually need Hitchcock, which is as sad a commentary on the state of the Cards' starting rotation as any you'll ever see.)
* * *
Why The Yankees Are Now Running Away With the East:
68 AB, 14 R, 24 H, 4 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 13 BB, 0 HBP, 10 SO, .353 BA, .457 OBP, .544 SLG
84 AB, 16 R, 26 H, 4 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 10 RBI, 5 BB, 1 HBP, 11 SO, .310 BA, .356 OBP, .488 SLG
57 AB, 8 R, 15 H, 2 2B, 0 3B, 4 HR, 12 RBI, 11 BB, 2 HBP, 9 SO, .263 BA, .400 OBP, .509 SLG
Those are the lines for Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, and Nick Johnson for the month of August, and that's not including tonight's 4-3 loss to the O's in which Bernie went 0-3 with a walk, Jeter went 2-4, and Nicky went 1-4 with a two-run homer that accounted for two-thirds of the Yankees' runs. Until late July, these three were only in the lineup together at the same time on Opening Day, when Jeter's shoulder lost an argument with Ken Huckaby's shinguard. On the year, these three have lines of .286/.389/.425 (Bernie), .322/.389/.469 (Jeter), and .289/.431/.502 (Nicky), but they've only been together for a month.
The fact that all three are now in the lineup every day only helps a team that already has some damn fine offensive weaponry in Alfonso Soriano, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, and Hideki Matsui. Even with the drag effect of Aaron Boone and the right-fielder-du-jour (though the Garcia/Dellucci/Rivera platoon looks to be more effective than Raul Mondesi ever was), this may now be the scariest lineup in the major leagues.
* * *
Okay, here's a nutty thought that has nothing to do with reality.
What if Barry Bonds was in the Yankees outfield?
Can you imagine? I mean, think about Barry Bonds playing half his games in a stadium in which the right-field seats are only 314 feet from home plate (the right-field wall at Pac-Bell Park is about where the #4 train is at Yankee Stadium).
Not only that, if you put him in the middle of a lineup where he's surrounded by the likes of Soriano, Jeter, Johnson, Giambi, Matsui, Posada, and Williams, you're not going to be able to pitch around him so easily. According to an amusing stat dug up by Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus, Bonds has been up 15 times with runners at second and third, and was walked 14 of those times. This is a no-brainer when the guy batting behind you is one of the Giants' well-past-it wonders like Benito Santiago or Edgardo Alfonzo or Andres Galarraga -- but do you really load the bases for Giambi or Posada?
Of course, it'll never happen in reality, but it's kinda fun to speculate....
(Apropos of nothing, Posada this year has come up with the bases loaded thirteen times this year. He has only a .125 BA and a .125 SLG, as he is 1-8 with a single -- but his OBP is .429 because he's walked five times. He has eight RBI, also, which means that one single drove in all three runners.)
NEXT: "Boom Boom Boom Boom"
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